Still scarred from his ill-fated bailout of Salomon Brothers 20 years ago, Warren Buffett says he’s not interested in rescuing any more Wall Street titans from troubles of their own making.

Buffett, 77, America’s second-richest investor, yesterday said he’s been approached on behalf of stressed-out investment banks for bailouts in the current housing recession and credit freeze, blamed on junk mortgage paper created by the banks.

The crisis has forced several banks to travel hat in hand to the Middle East and Asia in search of nearly $20 billion in cash infusions, including Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Merrill Lynch and Bear Stearns.

It’s strikingly similar to the hard times of 1987, when Goldman, Bear and Lehman Bros.’ forerunner went to Japan, and Salomon tapped Buffett, for their bailouts – just weeks ahead of the stock market crash of 1987.

“We’ve seen some deals, as you can imagine, in this period,” he said yesterday on CNBC, without identifying the banks.

“So far, we have not seen a deal that causes me to start salivating.” Buffett earlier denied reports he’d been offered a 20 percent stake in Bear Stearns for a bailout.

Buffett’s first investment in a Wall Street giant – his biggest investment ever at the time – came just a month before the crash of 1987. He poured $700 million into Salomon in a white knight rescue to quash an unwanted bid from upstart raider Ron Perelman.

However, Buffett got burned when Salomon

disclosed a surprise $70 million write-off from bad junk bond trades and the bank withdrew from its top business of municipal underwriting.

It wiped out a third of Buffett’s investment and sent tremors through Wall Street that days later triggered the biggest crash since the Great Depression.

But the worst for Buffett came in 1991 when Salomon admitted to illegal bid-rigging in government bonds, forcing top management to resign, and causing the firm to be barred from government auctions.

Buffett temporarily deserted Berkshire Hathaway for nearly a year to restore Salomon’s image and finally unload it to his friend Sandy Weill in 1997.

It wasn’t a total loss for Buffett. Weill and his Travelers Group paid $9 billion in Travelers stock for Salomon, in which Buffett owned 18 percent, a stake worth $1.7 billion – more than double his original investment.

Buffett – aware that today’s market anomalies are similar to those in 1987, with Wall Street choking on its bad investments and reaching abroad for bailouts – is still cool toward investment bank risks. paul.tharp@nypost.com